Australian Spotted Jellyfish Phyllorhiza punctata

The beautiful Australian (White-)Spotted Jellyfish is native to Western Pacific coasts, from Japan to Australia. It has been introduced as invasive species elsewhere, possibly as polyps in ships' ballast, including to warm waters of North America's Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

It looks like a white-spotted blue agaric mushroom but has only a mild venomous sting.

They live in large groups. Diet is zooplankton. As an invasive species, it competes with other plankton eaters and eats eggs/larvae of native marine life.

They can exceed 50cm (20 inches) across.

Like other jellyfish, they have two distinct reproductive life stages: the polyp stage and the medusa (adult) stage. They can live some 5 years as polyps and reproduce asexually, and live around 2 years as medusas and reproduce as males (sperm) or females (eggs).